Environmental well drilling involves exploration of underground tank systems containing fuel oil, gasoline and other regulated chemical products, as well as exploration for the containment, recovery, treatment and disposal of contamination from these and other sources.
Environmental well drilling rigs feature truck mounted carousels having augers, drills and other like equipment supported thereon for drilling in sandy granulated soil, clay and sandstone, and rock. After a drilling operation has been completed, the rig must be properly cleaned to remove residual contamination, i.e. decontaminated, before using the rig for another drilling operation.
Prior to the present invention, the aforementioned cleaning required excavating a pit of a suitable size and lining the pit with a plastic liner. The truck with the contaminated rig mounted thereon was driven to the pit and the rig was washed with water for decontamination purposes. The contaminated wash water was caught in the lined pit and subsequently pumped out of said pit into drums. The drums were thereafter transported to staging areas for appropriate disposition as required by governmental regulations. Difficulty is experienced in completely draining the lined pit and removing the plastic liner therefrom without spreading contamination. Moreover, the excavated pit had to be restored, i.e. refilled, after cleaning the rig as aforenoted.
It is evident from the above that cleaning an environmental well drilling rig to decontaminate the rig has heretofore been a cumbersome and time consuming task with a variety of attendant disadvantages. The present invention provides a portable decontamination system and method associated therewith for the purposes described which overcomes these disadvantages.